KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee launched a scathing attack on the BJP-led central government on Sunday after Delhi Police referred to Bengali as a "Bangladeshi" language in an official communication. The controversy has drawn rare support for Banerjee from political rivals, including CPI(M) leader Md Salim and CPI(ML) Liberation's Dipankar Bhattacharya.
The row began when Inspector Amit Dutt of Lodhi Colony police station in New Delhi allegedly described Bengali as the language of Bangladeshis in a letter to West Bengal's Banga Bhawan. Banerjee termed the description as "scandalous, insulting, anti-national and unconstitutional" in a post on X.
"The language of Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda, in which our National Anthem and National Song are written, is now being called a Bangladeshi language," Banerjee wrote, calling for nationwide protests against what she described as an "anti-Constitutional" act by the central government.
Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee called it a "calculated attempt" by the BJP to undermine Bengali identity and demanded immediate suspension of the police officer along with a public apology from Delhi Police, the BJP and Home Minister Amit Shah. "Bengalis are not outsiders in their own homeland," he stated.
However, BJP's West Bengal president Samik Bhattacharya defended the police, arguing that the language used was "absolutely correct" and distinguishing between Bengali literature from India and Bangladesh. BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya accused Banerjee of defending "illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators" and stated that national security would not be compromised for "vote-bank politics."
CPI(M) state secretary Md Salim posted the controversial Delhi Police letter on social media and mocked the department’s ignorance. “Will the illiterate @DelhiPolice explain what ‘Bangladeshi language’ means? Have they not heard of the 8th Schedule of the Constitution?” he asked.
CPI(ML) Liberation leader Dipankar Bhattacharya also condemned the incident, saying it reflects “majoritarian arrogance” and warned that fascism poses a threat to India’s linguistic and cultural fabric.
“The persecution of Bengali-speaking workers as ‘Bangladeshis’ has now escalated into outright denial of Bengali as an Indian language. This is an assault on our multicultural unity,” Bhattacharya said in a Facebook post.
He called for a united resistance against attempts to erode India’s linguistic diversity and national integrity.
